I Am Sustainable Studio
Sandy - Founder at I Am Sustainable Studio
16th April 2026
Rethinking Textile Waste Beyond Fashion
R4: Who is I Am Sustainable Studio?
Sandy: Hi, I’m Sandy, founder of I Am Sustainable Studio.
I spent over a decade in corporate as a regional marketing leader across Asia, building brands at scale. But at some point, I started questioning the system I was helping grow, especially how much waste it was quietly creating.
That led me to build I Am Sustainable Studio: we are a circular design and textile innovation studio based in Indonesia. Our mission is simple, but urgent: to make responsible business not just aspirational, but accessible.
Our flagship innovation is Recyrcle™, where we transform discarded hotel textiles such as bedsheets, towels, and uniforms into regenerated fabric and products. What was once considered waste becomes something functional, beautiful, and traceable with real impact behind it.
At its core, we’re not just creating materials.
We’re redesigning the system from waste to resource, from linear to circular.
R4: Why did you choose to work with hotel waste, in particular?
Sandy: When we talk about textile waste, most people immediately think of fashion. But globally, we generate over 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year, and a significant portion of that sits quietly within industries we don’t often question, like hospitality.
Hotels operate on a replacement cycle where linens, towels and uniforms are discarded every few months to maintain standards. Perfectly usable materials are systematically removed from circulation. It’s a linear system that’s normalized.
For me, that was the unlock.
Instead of competing within fashion’s already crowded sustainability narrative, I saw an opportunity to build a new ecosystem, one that starts upstream.
Hospitality has scale, consistency, and untapped waste streams. If we can intervene there, we’re not just recycling - we’re redesigning supply chains and changing the narrative. We equip authentic storytelling.
R4: What's the biggest challenge you face, and how can "the world" help you to grow?
Sandy: The biggest challenge isn’t technology.
It’s behavior and the mindset shift required from businesses today.
Circularity asks us to move from “waste disposal” to “resource thinking.” And that shift doesn’t happen overnight, especially in large systems like hospitality, where processes are deeply ingrained.
There’s also a gap between intention and execution.
Many brands want to be more sustainable, but don’t always know how to translate that into something measurable, scalable, and commercially viable.
How can the world help? Three things:
-
Adopt circular thinking early: not just as a marketing layer, but as part of your foundation. It may require more intention (and sometimes more investment) upfront, but it creates long-term value and resilience.
-
Collaborate across industries: waste in one system is a resource in another. Circularity doesn’t work in silos. We truly believe there’s no competition when the vision is shared - only opportunities to co-create.
-
Demand transparency: real impact, not just good storytelling. Ask where materials come from, how they’re made, and what they leave behind.
Because in the end, circularity only works when it’s collective.
R4: Can you share a case study of one of your successes?
Sandy: One of our earliest turning points was our collaboration with Further East: a global gathering of the hospitality and design community.
Instead of producing conventional event merchandise, we asked a different question:
What if every item given away could carry a second life?
We worked with hotel textile waste across Bali, linens that had quietly completed their lifecycle, and transformed them through our Recyrcle™ process into regenerated fabric. From there, we created over 600 circular tote bags for international delegates.
But what made this project meaningful wasn’t just the output. It was the shift in perspective.
Each bag became a story - from hotel room to human hands - carrying measurable impact:
-
158 kg of textile waste diverted
-
70,000 liters of water conserved
-
263 kg of CO₂ emissions prevented
And perhaps most importantly, each piece was crafted by local artisans in Indonesia, embedding livelihood and dignity into the process.
R4: How Do You Envision I Am Sustainable Studio in 10 Years?
Sandy: In 10 years, I don’t see us as just a studio.
I see us as infrastructure.
A global circularity platform, enabling the transformation of post-consumer waste into traceable, valuable resources with measurable impact.
A system embedded across hospitality, where no textile is treated as waste anymore but as inventory, as material, as opportunity.
Where hotels don’t just manage waste, but generate circular materials, data, and impact through it.
Where designers and brands can create freely with post-consumer materials, without compromise, making it desirable, beautiful, and relevant again to design from waste.
And where every product, whether a uniform, a bag, or a fabric - carries a story you can trace, measure, and feel.
Because ultimately, the goal isn’t to build a brand.
It’s to reshape an industry, and prove that circularity isn’t an alternative.
It’s the future.